calming a cough

i saw a woman, while in line at starbucks, sitting at a little two-top by the door. she was sipping a grande something delicious and quickly glancing up to her perfectly chic white iBook and down to a pad of paper. she was frantically scribbling notes as she read the screen. i made my way to a table to join my mother (after she so thoughtfully but sooooooo regretably took the unclaimed vanilla bean frappuccino LIGHT and thought maybe i'd like that instead of my usual iced soy latte with one splenda - ha ha ha i don't think so). so i stole a glance at the mac lover's screen on my way. she was reading a website entitled "how to calm a cough." why would some woman, any person, go to starbucks, by a four dollar coffee beverage, pay a ridiculous fee to get online, and read about coughing? in the 15-20 seconds it takes to rejoin my mom and baby girl in the back corner, my mind, has already come up with a terrifying and heart wrenching story of how her youngest child is dying of some incureable coughing disease and that website was her last hope to calm...his...cough...melodramic is my middle name. i have spent the better part of an hour trying to find this website with the large header "HOW TO CALM A COUGH." so far i have only found a bunch of perscription medicine sites and the definition of the word cough:

cough (kôf, kŏf)
v. coughed, cough·ing, coughs
To expel air from the lungs suddenly and noisily, often to keep the respiratory passages
free of irritating material.

hmmm seems to me coughing is a good thing from that definition. why try and calm it...